Introduction
Sport even sponsorship has been on the rise over the years. Commercial entities spend huge sums of money to sponsor sport events because of the associated financial benefits. Sports sponsorships has an advertising effect that increases consumption of a firm’s products, market stock returns and profitability. Sports sponsorship are also beneficial to the receiving parties since they are able to finance their sport events. Sport sponsorship are contracts like any other that give rise to rights and obligations that must be protected. The protection of these rights are critical to maintenance of the relationship between parties involved. Trademarks often form an essential element in sport sponsorship contracts. As earlier mentioned, sport sponsorship events are used as an advertising tool. Therefore, the company trademark has to be displayed in various locations and on sporting equipment/garments as specified in the contract. They also define whether the company obtains exclusive advertising rights or partial rights, and the extent to which it applies. Sports events sponsorship contracts also protects the parties being sponsored. The sponsored parties have a right to the funds promised in the contract if they meet their end of the bargain.
Features of Intellectual Property Rights in Sport Event Sponsorship
Intellectual property rights are temporary monopolies that are given to innovators to allow them to generate economic benefits from their innovations. In sport event sponsorship, intellectual property would include sport/company trademarks, event copyrights, designs, merchandise, confidential information, event coverage and goodwill. These rights may exist in logos, names, and visual images, the designs of athlete uniforms and colours and team reputation.
1.11 Practical use of Intellectual Property Rights in Sport Event Sponsorship
Intellectual property rights in sport sponsorship event are aimed at protecting ownership rights of the sport event. Registered trademarks used by sport events are used to identify owners of those events. Intellectual property rights in sport events also protects the license of the sport events. Intellectual property rights in sport event sponsorship help in ascertaining remedies to the particular event in the event that those rights are breached by any other person. For instance, examples of remedies in trademarks include injunction, interlocutory relief, damages or an account of profit. Generally, intellectual property rights in sport event sponsorship are used to protect parties involved in the organisation of the event and the event itself from ambush marketers. Ambush marketers are parties that seek to obtain financial benefits without any placing any investment or affiliation to the sport event.
Features of Trademark in Sport Event Sponsorship
The features of a trademark are defined in each jurisdiction. However, there are limited differences across jurisdictions. Section 17 of the Australian Trade Marks Act defines a trademark as a sign used or intended to be used for purposes of distinguishing goods or services of a particular entity from those of its competitors. The main features of trademarks in sport event sponsorship include symbols and logos, label tickets, sound, brand name and any words used by the said event amid others. Trademarks must be registered for them to be legally recognised and protected. Once registered, trademarks are considered as personal property of the owner.
1.21 The Practical Use of Trademark in Sport Event Sponsorship
Trademarks in sporting event are used to ensure that the public is not hoodwinked to believe that a certain companies are the official sponsors of an event yet in fact they are not. Normally, corporate sponsors are provided with the exclusive rights of use of corporate name marks and trademarks within an event. Therefore, event organisers are required to implement full rights protection and enforcement programmes to prevent other companies from infringing these sponsoring company rights.
According to Shilbury, et al., (2009), there are six main practical use of trademark in sport event sponsorship. The uses include identification, quality, advertising, merchandising, physical source and anonymous source. For identification purposes, trademarks are are used to identify corporate sponsors and the owners of the event. With respect to physical source, they are used to acknowledge the physical source of the products used by these event because they serve as a stamp approval. Moreover, sports trademark can enhance the perceived quality of a product thus raising it brand name. Symbols and logos as trademarks are also used for advertising during the sporting event. Similarly, if the event will receive media coverage the corporate sponsor reaches a larger audience in the geographical coverage of the network.
1.3 Features of a Contract
Contracts have numerous essential features. Among the essential features of a contract include offer, acceptance, consideration, intention, and certainty amid others. The offer is what a party provides in exchange for something. It depicts the willingness of a party or parties to be bound by the terms that have been established by an offeror. Only parties to a contract are bound by terms that are established in the contract. Acceptance is the acknowledgement and agreement of the other party or parties to be bound by the terms provided by the offeror. Consideration is usually the element of bargaining in a contract. It the promise to transfer something of value to the other party. Consideration is essential for the contract to be bindings between the contracting parties. Intention to create legal relations is an equally important element of any contract. The contracting parties must express intention either in action or representation of the intent to engage in a legally binding agreement. Contracts are only legally binding if the intent for it to be so exists. The intention for a legal relationship differentiates contracts from other domestic or social agreements. Certainty is also an important element of contracts. Parties to a contract must be fully aware of their rights and obligations that arise as a result of the contract. The rights and obligations must be clearly defined at the onset of the contract. Certainty protects the contracting parties since it ensures that each party meets their end of the bargain in executing the contract.
1.31 The Practical use of a contract
Contracts are essential almost every aspect of life. Contracts ensure that parties perform their obligations as stated in the contract. In events that a party fails to meet their contractual obligations, contracts ensure that the injured party can seek remedies from the legal system. A contract makes it possible because contracts clearly state the legal rights and obligations of each party thus providing a basis for comparing the executed actions and the obligations. A contract also enables parties to meet their obligations and avoid legal disputes. Contracts clearly state what the parties are expected to do. Consequently, it eliminates misunderstanding or miscommunications of the intentions of both parties. Contracts are important in sport event sponsorships. It ensures that the sponsor and the sport event owners meet their obligations as agreed. The sponsor is required to provide financial or other physical resources whereas the sports owners are supposed to exclusively allow the sponsor to advertise their products and corporate name during the event by taking deliberate actions to exclude non-affiliated corporates.
1.4 FEATURES OF A SPORT SPONSORSHIP AGREEMENT
Sport event sponsorship agreement are contracts that govern the legal relationship between sport event organizers and the corporate sponsors. Sport event organizers use sponsorship agreements to meet the event expenses and generate profits while the corporate sponsors use the sporting event platform to advertise their goods and their entity. Wall (2007) outlines the various features that sporting events should include the basic elements of any contract. The additional elements discussed include
Wall (2007) outlines among the features of a sport sponsorship agreement to include the following: special conditions, governing laws, sovereignty, non-competing covenants, performance guarantees, category exclusivity and assignability. It is noteworthy that sponsorship agreement are like any other contract. However, the key difference is the emphasis placed on exclusive rights to advertising at events that have been organized. Most sponsorship agreements are writing because they often involve huge sums of money and thus involve high level negotiations. Parties to sponsorship agreements have access to both court settlements and out of court settlements for any disputes that may arise in the course of the engagement.
1.5 Effects of an Effective Sport Sponsorship Programme
An effective sport sponsorship programme generates financial benefits to both parties to the sponsorship agreement. The sport event organizers are able to generate funds that not only allow them to pay for the event expenses but also generate profits in the process. Similarly, the corporate sponsors are able to advertise their products and reach the targeted audience. Sporting events creates a positive link with products and give consumers an emotional connection. For example, in 1980s the brand awareness of VISA products was low in Asia relative to Europe and America. However, its popularity increased drastically in Korea, Japan and Taiwan following the VISA sponsorship of the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul.
An effective sponsorship programme will also minimize legal costs associated with breach of contract. If all parties meet their end of the bargain, there will be no legal disputes that will arise. Legal disputes are not only financially costly but also time consuming.
Lastly, effective sponsorship creates an atmosphere of trust that allows for future engagement or long standing sponsorship deals to the benefit of all parties.
There are several key factors that ensure effective communication programmes. They include; clear communication, proactive engagement, and public opportunities, benefits derived by both parties and management of the sporting events.
1.6 Conclusion
As discussed, the increase of sponsorship events has increased thus the need for protection of intellectual property rights and other rights thereof. For the sponsorship event to operate efficiently, parties must enter into an agreement that is a contract so that their rights are protected and each part honour their obligations. Trademarks are essential as discussed as they promote the brand and proves ownership amid other things. Therefore, it is necessary for a sport sponsorship event to maintain clear communication and it must be proactive amid other things so as it can operate effectively.
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